Approvals in service desk show as "No approvers selected" when approver field is populated

[Charlie Bolante]

I have configured a workflow with an approval status and selected a user picker field as the approver list. I have verified that there are users in the field, but the approver status still show "No approvers selected"

I have reconfigured the approval status by disabling the status as an approver field, and then reconfiguring it. Double checked that the field configured is actually the field that's populated with user.

I've performed a re-index. integrity check, but still it doesn't seem to work.

I have tested it in another Jira instance by re-creating the issue with the exact same details, but it worked in that instance. I am able to reproduce the issue with a copy of the data restored to another instance. So it seems like that issue is corrupt or something.

Anyone experiencing a similar issue? We recently upgraded to 7.7.2 and JSD 3.10.2

Some screenshots of the approvals and the field that it's configured with showing that there are users in there, but not showing up in the Approvals panel.

[Emre Toptancı _OBSS_]

OK, I guess I figured out how it works.

The approval process works based on the workflow definition of the time the issue is created.

If you change the workflow definition and ...

• add approval
• or change the user field used for approval

... existing issues are not affected. Only new issues respect the new definition. Old issues keep working according to the old workflow definition.

My theory is: Jira copies the approval rules to somewhere on the issue during issue creation and runs approvals according to those saved rules. Changing the workflow definition does not change those rules on the issue so has no affect. (I checked the locked field "Approvals" that comes with JSM but that field has no value in customfieldvalue DB table so I don't know where Jira keeps those rules on the issue)

[Paul Wright]

Totally.  Just had to read this thread, so very useful.  I add the field, added the approvers, removed the field.  Happy days, thank you all.

[Kevin Glad]

I don't know if you ever figured this out but I had the same issue today.  It turned out that I had to include the approver field on the screen and then fill in the approvers manually for the few tickets that existed prior to me adding the approval process.  I suspect, JIRA uses the default value for the approver field to set the value of the filed for the ticket.  I am not sure what would cause JIRA to re-initialize the default or if it ever would.  I just know setting the value of the approver field removed the "No approvers selected".  I also suspect that allowing a user access to this field on the ticket, would give them the ability to change the approvers needed for that ticket on they fly.

[Dmitry Kuznetsov]

Check if you are trying to select approvers, while issue is already being on an approval step.

Approvers must be present in the approvers field before issue will transition to an approval step.

[Mark Hostetler]

In my scenario, I have tickets directly into the 'Needs Approval' status. Should I create an intermediate step?

E.G. Create-> [another status]->'Needs Approval'

[Dmitry Kuznetsov]

Not necessarily. If there is an automation script or a post function, that is changing approvers - that should happen before “create actual issue”.

[Marc Isikoff]

I'm using Jira Service Desk at my company and trying to automate the approvers and assignees partly from the form submission and others hard coded.

In automation I see "When an Issue is Created" but Dmitry Kuznetsov states this should happen "before create actual issue".

I am wondering how this is possible with automation as I see no way to do this prior to issue created.

[Paul Porter]

I'm having the same (or similar) problem.  I have created a new custom multiple user custom field.  I have set it to hide and selected the default users.  I have removed the custom field from all screens.  I use that same list on the approval status step in the workflow.  But when I advance to that step, no emails go out for approval, and I get "No approvers selected" just like the original poster.

[C]

did you verify that the approval field in the workflow is the same field that you referenced?  it seems that you might be referencing the approval field while the screen has the Environment Manager approval field.  

[Charlie Bolante]

Yes, I verified that the approval field "Environment Manager Approval" is both what is configured for the approver group in the status and in any transition screens.